3D Printing Can Help Blind Students Learn About Sex

3D-printing is letting blind students experience accessible sex ed for the first time.

Researchers created 18 3D figures that model sex organs during various states of arousal

They range from a flaccid penis to a dilated vaginal opening, allowing students to “feel” their way though sexual health lessons.

Studies show that 61% of blind adults or those with low vision say their vision status had a negative impact on the way they were able to participate in sex education.

It’s a gap advocates and researchers at Benetech, a nonprofit organization specializing in tech for good, set out to solve by creating these models of various penises and vulvas.

These models don’t only break sex ed barriers for blind children. Researchers say the models could make the instruction more meaningful for sighted kids, too.

The project’s goal is to eventually provide open-source 3D printing files for teachers. This means school districts would only have to finance the materials and printers to make the models.

Many experts predict the technology will become a staple for schools anyway. Once a school district owns a printer, 3D printing is a low-cost way to create models for classroom instruction, making it ideal for schools on a budget.

61% of blind or low vision adults say that their vision status had a negative impact on the way they were able to participate in sex education.
90% of blind students attend school with sighted children, relying on modified lessons to fully absorb material. But there are only about 61,700 blind students in the U.S. and commercial models of genitalia can cost up to $500 per model.

To develop prototypes, Benetech partnered with LightHouse for the Blind and Northern Illinois University, where the models were first tested on blind college students. The project was funded entirely by a Benetech donor.

Now in the second phase of the pilot program this spring, the models will make their ways into the hands of middle school and high school students.

By the end of the 2017 school year, researchers hope to have feedback from students on the current prototypes. Then they’ll release files with detailed printing instructions for classroom use.

About Nelson Régo

Nelson Régo is the owner and founder of the Cool Blind Tech website since November of 2012. Nelson launched the first show on March 14, 2013. He also directs the website as a whole, hiring staff, originating new shows, and approving all content.

The next generation of Amazon’s best-selling Fire tablet ever – now thinner, lighter, and with longer battery life and an improved display. According to Amazon, it is more durable than the latest iPad.

The accessibility features allows you to magnify the screen and increase the size of text in menus on your Fire tablet. You can also navigate your device using VoiceView gestures and hear spoken feedback about the items you touch and open

The Fire 7 Tablet has a 7″ IPS display with higher contrast and sharper text, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, and up to 8 hours of battery life.

8 or 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for up to 256 GB of expandable storage.

Technical Details

Display

Size

192 x 115 x 9.6 mm

Weight

295 grams (Actual size and weight may vary by configuration and manufacturing process.)

CPU & RAM

Quad-Core 1.3 GHz with 1 GB of RAM

Storage

8 GB (4.5 GB available to user) or 16 GB (11.6 GB available to user) of internal storage. Add microSD card for up to 256 GB of additional storage for even more movies, TV shows, music, photos, personal videos, and apps. (Some apps may require that they are installed on internal storage.)

Battery Life

Up to 8 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching video, and listening to music. Battery life will vary based on device settings, usage, and other factors such as web browsing and downloading content. Actual results may vary.

Charge Time

Fully charges in under 6 hours using the micro-USB power adaptor included in the box, or slightly longer with other micro-USB power adaptors that you may already have

Wi-Fi Connectivity

Single-antenna dual-band Wi-Fi. Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.

Ports

USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) to connect to a PC/Macintosh computer, or to charge your device with the included power adaptor; microSD slot for external storage